1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of translating a sentence, and more particularly, to a method of translating a sentence including a compound word formed by a hyphen using a translating machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in translating an English sentence into a Japanese equivalent by a translating machine, if the English sentence includes a compound word consisting of two words hyphenated each other which is not registered in a dictionary, Japanese equivalents to the two words preceding and succeeding a hyphen respectively are separately generated, and the generated Japanese equivalents are outputted without being hyphenated as a Japanese equivalent to the compound word in the form of a series of two separate words. It is therefore very difficult to distinguish whether a part of an outputted Japanese translation, which corresponds to the compound word of the original language, is a compound word formed by hyphenation or one individual word which is registered in the dictionary. This makes understanding of the meaning of the outputted sentence difficult.
Furthermore, in the conventional method, a compound word formed by hyphenation which is not registered in a dictionary is determined as a noun phrase. Hence, a compound word, which consists of a present (or past) participle and a noun coupled to the participle by a hyphen, is determined as a noun phrase if it is not registered in the dictionary though it must be determined as an adjective phrase.